A Vote for Labour is a Vote for South Sebastapol!

A sweeping comment but in practical terms it may be true. Suppose....

1. Say Labour get in with an overall majority or, like last time, are able to persuade a few others to join them and accept additional £8000 per year allowances for chairing some committee. 
2. If this happens it is almost inconceivable that the leader of this basically labour group will be other than Bob Wellington. If it is a hung council it will be he that will negotiate "the allocation of allowances" with non labour councillors he wants to get on side, and Mr Wellington will be confident of their support when it comes to the leadership vote at the first meeting after the election.
3. Since the planning application for the  South Sebastapol Scheme was defeated at Council,  Leader Bob Wellington has tried to get this decision reversed or difficult to defend at an appeal.  Additionally he has made no effort to change the officer dealing with the application on behalf of Torfaen. (In my opinion an officer who has spent the last decade supporting this scheme cannot put his heart and soul into defending the decision to now reject it.) 
4. So if labour get control of the council I believe the leader will increase the pressure on his group to tow the line (there will be extra allowances on offer and the group members won't have to face their electorate for another 4 years). Additional hurdles will be placed before the rejection of the application (such as reluctance to change local plans etc). 
5. The decision to reject the application could possibly be reversed or the case for Torfaen to defend an appeal will be undermined by the Leaderships refusal to bow to the will of the people and by the planning departments reluctance to wholeheartedly support the democratic decision of the council.
6. If an appeal is made by the developers  then there is very little chance of it being rejected with leading councillors and officers still supporting the application. THIS WILL BE THE CASE IF LABOUR LEAD THE NEXT COUNCIL
7. So A Vote for Labour is a Vote for South Sebastapol!

VERY IMPORTANT EXCEPTIONS (there may be others)

Councillor Brian Mawby (Labour, Pontnewydd ward) put his neck on the line and has spoken very strongly against the application in council on a number of occasions. If you don't want South Sebastapol and you are in the Pontnewydd Ward then you must vote for Brian Mawby.

For The upper Cwmbran Ward Councillor John Cunningham (Labour, Upper Cwmbran ward) spoke very strongly against the application and voted against it. (On the other hand Cllr Bob Jones voted for the application, following the party line.)

A Vote for Labour is a Vote for South Sebastapol!  Discuss?

Is a vote for Plaid a vote for labour, like it proved to be last time?  

Who's putting up for council in your ward?  see here.